Tsunami's Effects: Man, And The Sea I

14 APRIL 2008

Fishing ImpactHistorically, tsunamis have impacted sea life. Large waves overrun masses of land, and leave in the treetops and sea creatures on land. It's an odd twist that the tsunami trades land animals for sea animals in this way. How many fish were washed ashore on December 26th? How many reefs were damaged?

While we ponder immediate problems and immediate solutions, it's important that evaluation of the actual fish is done. Where literally millions of fish may have died, and where the habitats of the fish nearer the coast have almost certainly been affected, there is no apparent data based on previous tsunamis to indicate the effect on ocean life  and subsequently, human lives that depend on this ocean life. Consider Coral reefs may take years to recover from tsunamis - and therefore, so may the fish. The Coral Reef Heritage of India is a strong one. What will the poor fisherman, who has had his boat wrecked and has lost income over the last few days, catch in the next few months?

While society has been aware of the effects of fishing and overfishing for quite some time, the numbers tend to be human-centric. We've tried to make made it illegal for humans to inadvertently decimate fish stock although Mother Nature can do it with impunity. This doesn't excuse deep sea scraping; instead it makes humanity's effect on sea life more important. What we call a calamity under cover of a tsunami is something which we actually do ourselves a natural catastrophe. It's not usually the humble coastal fisherman who does this, instead the larger fishing operations  yet the price paid is one of hunger.